Lesson 1 - Alphabet and Spelling

Now that the class learned the Vietnamese alphabet and how to say each letter, today we learned something surprisingly complicated: learning to spell in Vietnamese. Class was shown how this is done. The advantage of learning this? First of all you no longer need to spell Vietnamese in English. I mean that should have been obvious. We don't spell Cambodian in English or Thai in English, why Vietnamese? Secondly, not only will you recognise what's happening when a native person spells something to you, but you can spell things to them! Either words you would like to confirm, or words you are saying but they're just not understanding. Ultimately, a very important aspect of learning Vietnamese. Here is this worksheet's audio.

How successful has learning Vietnamese been when we included a game or an activity? Haven't we learned so much more, remembered so much better? "Humour" is yet another method approved by the Governing Body for language learning and for good reason; it works. In class we played interpreter scenarios. We had either a doctors appointment, or a lawyer's consultation with one student playing the Dr/Lawyer, one playing the patient/client, and the third playing the interpreter. Each with a list of common terms for that scenario, we had some hilarious skits performed by our students - Skin amputations being prescribed and judges being bribed makes for some interesting language learning! Here is the audio of the common terms. And here are some photos of the riotous performances.